Undermathic has crafted something in 10:10PM that is naturally compelling, intense and narrative without being demanding or exhausting, the ever-changing pacing and mood handled with such style and subtlety that it is barely noticeable, making this one of the most straight-through listening experiences in the label’s history.
[Purchase] On the tenth of October last year (quite literally 10/10/10) and almost exactly one year after his debut album Return To Childhood Tympanik Audio released 10:10PM, Polish electronic composer Maciej Paszkiewicz’s second full length as Undermathic. His debut album was widely reviewed and rightly praised for its intensity and towering layers of dense and earthy sound, but one of the criticisms leveled at Return to Childhood was that in spite of the brilliance of the production, the musical composition was sometimes lacking, many tracks following a basic and rather repetitive verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure that lacked progression.
10:10PM doesn’t just address this issue, it stamps it into a fine paste and buries it in the ground, which then claws its way back up from beneath the silt and soil to emerge, blinking, into the dazzling, multi-coloured glow of “Big City Lights,” blasting away the melodic cul-de-sacs to reveal glittering city skylines, streets bustling with pedestrians, streaming traffic, the distant sounds of building construction/destruction muffled by the wind channeled between dirty high-rise buildings. Tanner Volz and Britt Parrott’s video for the track documents precisely the kind of visuals the album evokes all on its own: slow motion shots of downtown buildings passing by, views through the windows of restaurants, bars, shops and office blocks, the faceless masses of a sprawling urban conurbation streaming past through markets, nightclub exteriors, any random street… brilliantly capturing the sense of anonymity and isolation one can feel in such spaces.
“Big City Lights” is a killer opener and probably the finest track on 10:10PM but everything on this release is fueled by a similar panoramic claustrophobia and there’s a new take on Undermathic’s swirling, soupy composition in every track. “Quantum Theory,” for example, announces itself with a repeated, grandiose synth horn that’s a veritable call to arms, then unleashes shimmering synth keys, dry, bassy vocal pads and chalky percussion to kaleidoscopic effect, and “I Remember” expertly mixes the kind of warm, flowing ambient washes one would expect to hear on a Global Communication album with early System 7 post-rock guitar riffs to surprisingly compelling effect.
In fact the classic Undermathic verse/chorus structure does make an appearance once or twice here, notably in the moments of shimmering ambiance counterpointed by the thunk/clunk of intricate beatwork on “Searcher” or the gleaming arpeggios alternated with scraping clangs/clanks on “Alternative Timeline,” but as demonstrated by the formers’ vocal pads and arpeggiated keys or the sweeping strings of the latter, there’s always progression and new elements thrown in from beginning to end, creating a far less abstract experience than on his previous full length. 10:10PM is packed with classically composed melodies rather than programmatic constructs and loops that all contributes to the highly visual nature of the work.
In spite of all this urban intensity, Undermathic knows when to offer the listener the chance to take a breather, affording time and space to regroup, as on “Saiph” as fizzling crackle, low end rumble, the distant screech of tyres on tarmac, more construction clanging and an underpinning wave of soothing strings provide as much calm as the environs of 10:10PM‘s city-scapes will allow before the rhythmic engines and machinery of the title track turn over.
Even in the very latter stages of the album, Undermathic is still reinventing and mutating his sound and the narrative structure of the album kicks into an even higher gear. The almost Wip3out-styled rolling synths of computronic “Level III” propel the listener on a high speed race out of the city through the dusty chimes, harps and sea spray of “7 Years” down to the wave-drenched shores of the “Sea,” the calling of seagulls the last thing one hears at the end of this great escape.
An absolutely archetypal release for Tympanik Audio, 10:10pm oozes confidence and conviction, delivering in spades everything a good, accessible electronic record should with such aplomb it’s actually hard to criticize in any constructive way because it literally doesn’t put a foot wrong for the duration. Undermathic has crafted something in 10:10PM that is naturally compelling, intense and narrative without being demanding or exhausting, the ever-changing pacing and mood handled with such style and subtlety that it is barely noticeable, making this one of the most straight-through listening experiences in the label’s history.
10:10pm is out now on Tympanik Audio. [Purchase]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/1010pm_clip.mp3|titles=”10:10pm” clip]
[audio:http://igloomag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/quantum_theory_clip.mp3|titles=”Quantum Theory” clip]
